Amanda Thomas

I attribute my success to a mindset I've held since high school: speaking my goals into existence. I vividly remember saying out loud that I wanted to work at a doctor's office, and I made that happen. Once I got into that introductory role, I saw a practice administrator's office and said, 'I want to be that one day.' I knew there were schooling requirements, so I got my Bachelor's and my Master's, and now I am in the position of the person who hired me initially. I'm very big on speaking things into existence and seeing something I'm interested in, recalling when I said it out loud, and then making it happen. I've continued to branch off of that throughout my career and my life, even down to purchasing a home. A friend of mine bought a house, and I said, 'If she could do that, I could do that. I'm gonna buy a house.' I immediately looked into the steps I needed to take. It took me a year and a half, and I bought a house. More recently, someone suggested I write a book about my health experience, and that stuck with me. I woke up one day and said, 'I can't shake this idea, so okay, I'm gonna write a book.' I looked into it and published my book on March 20th. My main approach is to dissect what's needed, do the research, and break things down into chunks. I'm big on creating checklists because I look forward to completing something and checking it off the list. I took that with me through my chemo and radiation. I made checklists for everything and had it up on my refrigerator, so every time I went to get chemo, I couldn't wait to get home to check that date off. That made me feel like I'm that much closer. The key is not to feel so overwhelmed and defeated. The more time you sit and ponder, 'How am I ever gonna get through this?' that's time wasted that you could be that much closer to being done.

One of the best pieces of guidance I’ve followed since high school is to speak my goals into existence, because that mindset has helped me stay focused, motivated, and intentional in achieving the success I envisioned for myself.

My main advice would be to dissect what's needed. If you find something that is a goal of yours or that you want to work towards, do the research to see what all is entailed in getting to that. Then dissect that, because if you just look at it like, 'Oh, I want to work in the healthcare industry, and I need a degree, and I need this, and I need that,' that can instantly be so overwhelming and make you just be like, 'Yep, that's too much. I can't, or I'm not doing that,' and forget it. You really gotta just break it down. I'm big on breaking things down into chunks and creating checklists. I so look forward to completing something and checking it off the list. Breaking it up into sections means you don't feel so overwhelmed and so defeated, like this is just so much and it's all on top of me and how am I ever going to get to the finish line. The other thing is, the more time that you sit and ponder and just sit in that 'Oh my gosh, this is so much, I don't know, how am I ever gonna get through?' that's time wasted that you could be that much closer to being done. Even when you think about school, if you know that's something you want to do, just go sign up. One class has started. The more months, these days, hours, weeks, months, everything is flying by. The more time you sit and waste deciding on whether or not you can, or if it's too much, you could have been that much closer to being done.

I see one of the biggest opportunities in my field as the growing presence of women in leadership roles. In my experience with my employer, it's very much equitable. For my level of practice administrators, the majority of my colleagues are all female. I'd say that at least 80% of the whole room at our quarterly in-person meetings is female. My executive director that I report to is a female. Our regions all have executive directors that all the practice administrators roll up to, and they're all female. So yes, we are making strides. I can't speak for every healthcare organization, but I will say specifically at Johns Hopkins, women are very present in leadership.

I'm gonna say being intentional, purposeful, and present. That carries over to both lanes for me, but after going through what I went through, being intentional and being present is just really big for me. Because time is huge, and don't put anything off for tomorrow, because some people don't get tomorrow. My best friend's son just turned two in January, and he just got diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor. He's not going to live past his third birthday, which is the beginning of next year. Where did that come from? Out of nowhere. He was just living life riding a four-wheeler for Christmas, and now he's in a wheelchair with this brain tumor that can't be operated on because it's on the brainstem. These are the things that I'm talking about when I say be present, don't put anything off, because this time is important, and making memories and doing things that are full of meaning matter. I am very adamant about ensuring that I pour back into myself, because I have fully acknowledged that I can't be 100% for my kids if I'm on negative E. I make sure that I've got something planned to look forward to on a monthly basis. I even did that during my chemo journey. I had something planned so I had something to look forward to. While after the chemo hit me really bad and I'm in bed struggling, really sick, I would just be laying there like, 'Okay, I've got a spa appointment in another week or another two weeks,' and that helps me hold on.